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AREAS OF DESOLATION 
IN PENNSYLVANIA 



BY 

J. T. ROTHROCK, M.D., S.B. 

FORMERLY COMMISSIONER OF FORESTRY OF PENNSYLVANIA . 



HERBERT WELSH 

996 DREXEL BUILDING. PHILADELPHIA 
1916 







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Pennsylvania Once had Hundreds of Square Miles of such White Pint; as This. 
It is Now Practically All Gone 



AREAS OF DESOLATION 
IN PENNSYLVANIA 



. , BY 

J. TrROTHROCK, M.D., S.B. 

FORMERLY COMMISSIONER OF FORESTRY OF PENNSYXVAXIA 



HERBERT WELSH 

995 DREXEL BUILDING, PHILADELPHIA 
1915 



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By Trpnsi; . 

NOV 22 \n'o 



What Would You Do: Restore Forests 
on Non-Agricultural Land, or Im- 
poverish the State? 

Pennsylvania is divided into two parts, a prosperous 
and a desolated part. It is to Desolated Pennsylvania 
that this paper refers. It concerns the thousands of 
square miles which were robbed of the timber in ad- 
vance of any actual need and the naked soil abandoned 
for fii-e and flood to impoverish and make unproductive ! 

This land is not in one connected whole. It is 
scattered over the central parts of the State, on the 
highest plateaus, about the head-waters of the streams 
and on the shaly slopes of the inferior ridges. Agri- 
culture has been attempted on a portion of it, but 
proved so uuremunerative often that the land and 
the farmer grew poorer with each succeeding year. 

If it were possible to gather these acres together, 
they would make an area 80 miles long and 80 wide, 
which is about one-seventh the area of the State. 

The lifetime of an individual is as nothing in the life 
of a commonwealth, for the ideal State lives forever, 
and its highest function is to provide for its own pros- 
perous perpetuity. Failing in this, patriotism lan- 
guishes, and respect for government disappears. 

No State in which one acre out of seven is unpro- 
ductive through neglect, or improper care, can be con- 
sidered as on the high road to perpetual prosperity. 
To have its soil become poorer as its population in- 

3 



creases, means loss of power in comparison with other 
States whose natural resources are better managed. 

It is an astounding statement that I make, when I 
say, as I do now, that in my lifetime I have seen prac- 
tically one-seventh of this Commonwealth cease to 
produce wealth, power, or food for the remainder of the 
State! 

In this estimate I have not included those portions 
of the coal fields on which neither farms nor forests 
are found, but which already present so desolate an 
appearance as to suggest the inquiry: What is to 
happen there when the mining ceases? 

My distinct recollection extends back at least sixty 
years. The railroads were just opening the way to 
the markets and, as a consequence, lumbering began 
on a scale previously unknown. What the rafts had 
carried out of the woods was as "a drop in the bucket" 
in comparison with what the railroads were to take out 
to the centers of demand. 

From the mouth of the Sinnemahoning, northwest to 
the Allegheny River at Warren, 75 miles as the crow 
flies, was an almost unbroken forest. There was no 
house where the town of Kane now stands. Ridgway 
and Johnsonburg were just lifting their heads out of 
the woods. I walked from Clearfield to Saint Mary's 
and thence to Smethport — 60 miles; most of the way 
through glorious white pine and hemlock forests, of 
which hardly a vestige now remains. Those forests 
are but a memory ! 

Do not misunderstand me. I have no contention 
with the lumbermen of those days. The timber was 
there. It was mature. It was thought to be needed 
as fast as it was cut. At least there was a market for 




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Such Hemlock Once Covered Hu^fDREDS of Swcaue Miles which ake Now Desolated and 

Producino Nothing of Value 



it — and such timber! Soft white pine, the cutting of 
which was a luxury ; no knot to dull the knife or axe ! 
Who could blame the purchaser for refusing all but 
the best, when it could be had at a reasonable rate? 
No one wanted inferior grades ! The lumberman could 
hardly be expected to handle them at a loss to himself. 
There was so much white pine that there was no market 
for hemlock; when it (the hemlock) was cut, the bark 
was stripped and sold to the tanner, but the logs were 
left to bleach and rot where the tree fell. No end of 
timber ; no end of prosperity. Those were great times ! 

But an end did come. Those hillsides — black with 
forest wealth, the State sold, timber and all, for 26% 
cents an acre — are for the most part bare now. Fire 
has swept over them and destroyed the new growth, 
such as it was, and the snows of winter and the rains 
of summer have washed the soil away, until many 
farms that were started where the forests stood have 
been abandoned because of the impoverished soil. 

The men who cut the trees and the men who sawed 
the logs into lumber have left. The country is the 
poorer because they have gone ; for they were industri- 
ous, strong-armed, brave-hearted men. 

But how about the land? Too poor to farm for the 
most part, often without mineral resources, it was 
simply abandoned, practically uncared for. To-day 
one may safely say there are 3,000,000 acres of such 
unprotected land in the State of Pennsylvania. 

Surely there must be fault somewhere; who is to 
blame? No one in particular! As a people we were 
dazed over what we thought the inexhaustible stock 
of timber. The tremendous increase of population, 
the enormous demand to be made upon the forests, 



6 

were not anticipated. And we cut and kept on cutting 
and shut our eyes to the fact that the end was ap- 
proaching. 

The mistake was that we failed to realize that pro- 
duction of forests was the one predestined function of 
our mountain ranges and stony ridges, and, of course, 
as a consequence no one thought of putting them back 
to timber — as Germany, France, or Switzerland would 
have done. If productive forestry had been under- 
stood at the time here, we might have had forests well 
advanced toward maturity since the zealous cutting 
for lumber purposes began, and the mould and soil 
still remaining upon a fertile forest floor ! 

A great wrong has been done the soil by our failure 
to return to it the forest crop for which it was fitted; 
and through wrong to the soil we have done a greater 
wrong to those for whom we, by divine appointment, 
held the land in trust — our children ! 

Of those who did the lumbering, comparatively few 
became wealthy. The reward for their industry was 
not great. Lumber was thrust on to the market in 
advance of actual pressing need, and the consequence 
was that prices, even for the best, fell below a normal 
rate; but, all the same, an irreparable injury was in- 
flicted upon the country, a wrong so great and so un- 
necessary that even the phenomenal development and 
prosperity of those days cannot atone for it. 

Ignorance often invites, but seldom averts, a penalty. 

To-day the lesson of China compels our attention. 
To what extent can we, by prompt action, escape the 
penalty invoked by violation of natural law when the 
protecting forest cover was removed and fire and flood 
invited to do their worst on our steep, rocky slopes? 




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"Fou-piNG, Chi-li Province, China. Originally Wooded; Settled, 

Cleared, Ruined Since 172')"; i. f., One Hundred and Ninety Years. 

Illustration from U. S. Geological Survey 








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Bottom Lands Buried in Waste from Defore.sted Mountains, Wu-Tai- 

Shan, Shan-Si Province, China 

Illustration from U. S. Geological Survey 



A glance at the hills of Kettle Creek, Anderson 
Creek, or the Sinnemahoning is a good preliminary 
to the study of the torrent washed, treeless hills of 
China! The upper illustration facing this page repre- 
sents a scene in Fou-Ping, Chi-li Province, China. It 
bears this legend: "Originally wooded; settled, cleared, 
ruined since 1725, that is 190 years of history." There 
is nothing remarkable in the scene. It is merely the 
expression of a natural law. It is what we may expect 
to have here as well as in China, if we leave steep hill- 
sides unprotected by some effective cover. The lower 
illustration, "A Pennsylvania Washout" (facing page 
15), shows what one summer shower can do in the way of 
commencing desolation. Every particle of matter on 
our highlands is on its way to the ocean level, so long 
as the law of gravitation exists. The more soluble the 
substance is, the more rapid is its descent to the water 
level; lost to our productive acres. 

A senator of the United States, a gentleman who had 
made his fortune by lumbering, once stated in a public 
meeting in Washington that the white pine was doomed, 
that there was no help for it, that it could not be re- 
produced. 

In matters involving essential public pohcy, senators 
should be better informed. At the very hour of his 
utterance white pine seed, grown from mature trees 
in Germany, was being used in this country to produce 
seedlings for use in our forest nm'series. It is fui'ther- 
more noteworthy that this imported white pine seed 
came from trees, or seeds, imported into Germany 
nearly a century ago from North America. It is fair 
to say that white pine is among the easiest of om' forest 
trees to reproduce. 



8 

Forests of white pine, grown from nursery sown seed, 
are now well advanced on the Biltmore estate in North 
Carolina. The earliest plantation on the forest reserve 
at Mont Alto is now 15 feet high, and is in as thrifty 
a condition as any of natural growth. What is true 
of white pine is true of every other valuable species 
of our native trees, with the possible exception of chest- 
nut and black locust, which have foes of their own. 
Every forester, every nurserjonan, knows this to be 
true. It is time to make and insist unequivocally on 
the statement that delay in reforestation of every 
acre of land now practically abandoned in the State 
of Pennsylvania, unless it can be immediately set out 
to some better use, will entail in future an enormous 
expense — a debt which our successors must bear. 
Proper care of the soil is the most important function 
of government, for on it not only the life of the com- 
munity depends, but the stability of the government 
itself. 

How vast an undertaking this is can be realized only 
by those who carefully consider the problem. The 
work will extend over so long a period, before large 
financial returns can be expected, that it must either 
be done by, or encouraged by, the State. 

Not only in the interest of wood-using industries, 
but in the interest of those requiring mechanical power, 
restoration and protection of our forests is a public 
duty. 

Every gallon of water that flows away unutilized 
is so much power wasted. In one sense it is worse 
than wasted, because to do the work it might have done 
the utilization of some non-restorable source of power 
was required. For example, coal! 



If on a winter day, after a period of freezing weather, 
one goes into a forest on which there lies a bed of 
autumn leaves, it will probably be noticed that the soil 
beneath is not frozen; that an iron-pointed cane can 
be easily thrust into the depths. The leaves perform 
exactly the function for the earth that clothing does 
for a man. They retain the heat — in the one case, of 
the earth, in the other, of the body. In addition to this, 
there is another force at work. The oxygen of the air 
is uniting with the carbon of the leaves and a slow 
combustion is going on. Thrust your hand into a 
thick bed of decaying leaves or straw, and note the 
heat. This heat, not in itself great, is nevertheless a 
constant factor in preventing the soil in the forest 
from freezing. 

Change the experiment, go out on to the surface 
of a field and try to thrust the cane into the depths of 
the soil and one will discover that a resisting surface 
prevents the iron from entering. It is the frozen surface 
of the soil. This is a fair statement of facts for average 
winter weather in the State of Pennsylvania. The 
cold, in exceptional cases, freezes the soil in both woods 
and fields, and, on the other hand, the season may be 
so mild as to freeze neither wood nor field soil. Further- 
more, in the woods where forest fires have destroyed 
the bed of leaves the ground may be frozen, and, on 
the contrary, a very heavy mulch of grass in an open 
field may prevent the soil of the field from freezing, 
but neither of these exceptional cases invalidates the 
general truth that in winter the leaf covering of the 
forest floor prevents the soil beneath from freezing 
and that the absence of an equivalent covering in the 
field allows the soil to freeze. 



10 

There is a common belief that open fields, if not 
frozen when a considerable body of snow falls upon 
them, will remain unfrozen. This, however, is not 
always the case. In long-continued, severe, freezing 
weather ground may freeze even under a foot of snow. 
When a thaw begins and no water escapes from the 
snow-bank, it is not necessarily because it is going into 
the ground. Such water is often absorbed by the snow 
until the latter is saturated. When this occurs, the 
water may escape as surface water. 

This all bears directly upon the question as to 
whether or not forests aid in conserving rain or snow 
fall. 

The most positive evidence of the water-conserving 
capacity of forests may be observed during a sudden 
thaw in January or February, when small streams in 
farming regions are quickly made bank full by escape 
of water over a frozen surface from but a few inches of 
melting snow. At the same time temporary lakes are 
formed in the depressions from which the water can- 
not escape. Trials made of the fields show that the 
water is not going into the ground. Examination made 
of an adjacent forest floor shows that there is an active 
absorption of water there until actual saturation of soil 
is reached. 

Such facts as these appear conclusive, even in the 
absence of more elaborate observations of the meteoro- 
logical stations. 

Production of power has become one of the dominant 
questions. That the supply of coal is Umited, that it 
must become more costly as the years pass, that once 
used it cannot be restored, is axiomatic. 

Squandering a non-restorable power to accomphsh 



11 

work which can as well be done by a restorable power 
is almost a crime. Pennsylvania possesses a vast 
undeveloped water power; just how much it is im- 
possible yet to say. In this connection, however, it is 
important to insist upon the fact that the maintenance 
and increase of this power are closely associated with 
the restoration of our forests on such lands as have no 
agricultural value, and especially upon the higher and 
rougher lands of the State. 

Recent reports inform us that 450 miles of the Chi- 
cago, Minneapolis & St. Paul Railroad are soon to be 
electrified, because (first) abundant power exists in the 
great falls of the Missouri; (second) because one-horse 
power steam costs annually $150, while the same energy 
derived from electricity costs $40; steam is wasteful; 
fire must be maintained while engines stand blowing 
off steam on a siding; for electrical service you simply 
cut off the power; (third) a freight locomotive runs 
150 miles and then goes to the round house; an electri- 
cal engine runs 1200 miles before being returned to 
round house for repairs. I have made these statements 
on what seems to be competent authority. 

It must be remembered, the question of water power 
is not one merely of the volume of rain or snow fall; 
for much of that power might run out of the country 
unutilized when business is slack. The most important 
factor is the volume of persistent power: that which 
may be depended upon when needed. 

It is in this aspect that the forest covering becomes 
so important, because it is the water which soaks into 
the ground and not that which flows off of the surface 
upon which a sustained water supply depends. The 
fact is clearly established by our Government investi- 



12 

gators that the level of the ground water is steadily 
becoming lower; that in order to secure a permanent 
water supply for our homes we must dig to greater 
depths. We cannot well overestimate the importance 
of this discovery ; for the rapidity with which the water 
level has lowered over wide areas starts very serious 
questions as to the many future needs of a constantly 
increasing population. 

There is still another relation existing between our 
forests and water in which we can readily notice the 
danger of water on cleared ground. To put the prob- 
lem in concrete form, study the condition along the 
main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad near, say, 
Tuscarora Station. On the one side you have Juniata 
River, on the other the slope which has descended a 
thousand or more feet from a timber-covered, rocky 
mountain. We will suppose that one of the torrential 
summer rains has occurred a few hours before. On 
the river side you will see a muddy, more or less swollen 
stream. The muddy color is due to the wash from the 
fertile farm lands through which the river has come. 
It represents the best, most soluble part of the soil. 
Its loss is in every instance a detriment to the farm from 
which it has come. On the mountain side of the road- 
bed you will see many small streams tumbling down 
over a rocky bed; but, if you observe closely, you will 
find that the water is usually almost clear, sometimes 
it is wholly clear, and it is almost never muddy; 
though, owing to the steeper slope down which that 
water has come, the tendency to washing out of soil 
was greater than on the river side. The reason is 
plain : on the forest floor the bed of leaves arrested the 
rapid flow of water, covered and protected the soil, 




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while the roots descending between the rocks served 
as lines along which much of the water penetrated into 
the depths. 

Fertile soil is perhaps the most precious inheritance 
we have received from the long past. It forms but a 
small part of the earth upon which we tread. Once 
removed, or destroyed, it is with great difficulty re- 
stored. Without it no crop can be raised. In the 
eternal round of things it is constantly moving to the 
ocean level, and is constantly being formed again. 
The rate of its removal and the rate of its formation 
are the factors which determine whether the capacity 
for production of food is increasing or dmiinishing. 
On the farms the one problem is how to maintain the 
fertility of the soil; in the forest the soil of itself re- 
news its fertility. 

But under all conditions there is a certain wear of the 
earth's sm'face. It is greatest on steep, treeless slopes, 
unless they be so rocky as to resist erosion. There are 
thousands of acres of such steep hillsides in Pennsyl- 
vania on which nothing but rocks appear, the soil 
having been washed away. But trees or no trees, the 
wear goes on, though infinitely slower with, than with- 
out, trees. 

Pennsylvania has a wonderful history. "Our moun- 
tains were once ten times higher than they are 
now; and their gradual erosion to their present height 
by the frosts and rains of past ages, beginning long 
before the advent of the races of living beings which 
now inhabit the planet, makes the most interesting 
chapter in our geological history." 

One-fourth of the State has a general level of 2000 
feet above sea. It seems once to have been almost a 



14 

continuous plateau, which has been cut into ridges, 
crossed by gaps until it is changed into what seems 
like one mountain range after another as far as the eye 
can reach. Striking examples of such erosion are seen 
in the region of the west branch of the Susquehanna, 
at the first fork of the Sinnemahoning and on Fish 
Dam Run. 

To produce such marked effects, long periods of 
time were required. Even while the valleys were 
being washed out, or the ridges cut through, forests 
were growing on the soil. As the large trees fell, smaller 
ones came to take their places, to cover the slopes and 
the level ground with leaves and soil, to hold back 
and render as slow as possible the constant wearing 
away of the earth. 

When, in human history, the forests were cut away, 
the slow march of events became more rapid, soil was 
removed faster than it was made. The oldest seats 
of civilization are too often abandoned and in desert 
condition now. Study the problem from what point 
we may, the close connection between human prosperity 
and forests appears too plain to be disputed. The 
utter removal of the forests marks the beginning of 
desolation and the disappearance of man's power over 
nature. 

One more look at these desolated hills! Observe, 
they are almost covered by rocks — no soil remains in 
sight. Time was when there existed enough soil there 
to support a vigorous hemlock forest. When the 
forest was removed, the soil followed, filtered out, 
washed away, and with it disappeared all prospect 
of immediate reforestation, except at great expense. 
This is an illustration of the growing problem which 






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Slate Run Valley 

Onre prdduooil a heavy honilock forest. Soil now washed out.. Valley with 

enormous eapaeity for safe storage of water 




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15 

confronts the State. There are too many such hills 
in Pennsylvania to escape attention. Their condition 
is becoming worse each year. The problem is too large 
to ignore. Older nations, more experienced nations, 
have learned not only that such evils must be corrected, 
but how to correct them, though at a cost of millions 
of dollars where thousands would have sufficed if 
restorative measures had been applied earlier. 

Desolated as they are, those hills still are of great 
value to the Commonwealth. They form solid boun- 
daries within which immense water power may be 
safely confined. Take for example Slate Run, a branch 
of Pine Creek. It is probably ten miles long. From 
source to mouth it runs through just such a country as 
the upper illustration facing this page shows — ravines 
from 800 to 1000 feet deep. There are at least a dozen 
branches in which streams flow throughout the year, and 
in each of which a vast volume of water might be hoarded 
and electrical power generated on the spot, transmitted 
to where needed and the water passed on to be used 
again, multiplying power over and over many times. 

It is hard, indeed, to exaggerate the manufacturing 
possibilities back of such topographical featiu-es! If 
the possibilities of Slate Run were multiplied fifty 
fold, they would not exceed the power latent in the 
valleys cut by erosion from the high table-land of the 
State. 

It is humiliating to think how little our people 
know about these resources that are off of the line of 
travel. Such of them as are on the State forest re- 
serves should continue to remain in its possession, to be 
used for the benefit of all the people. The world is 
surely but slowly learning that unappropriated natural 



16 

resources should remain as a trust, to be administered 
for the public. 

There is a vision behind the cloud, for those who can 
see it. Back of all thus far alluded to in this brief 
paper there looms up a great truth : Congestion of our 
population in and near our cities leads to want when 
work is scarce, and to discontent and unrest even when 
it is abundant. Housing conditions, due to want of 
room, are bad. There is no family garden from which 
food may be obtained. The vegetables, the milk, the 
butter, the eggs, come from the grocer and can be had 
only when times are good and wages high. The sur- 
roundings are not favorable for good health or for good 
citizenship. 

There is room for a vast population on the very 
regions under consideration, where there is good air, 
good water, room for the garden, the pasture, the poul- 
try, of every family, often nearer the possible source 
of supply of raw material for manufacture, and with 
the power flowing in sight of the homes. The removal 
of many of the factory sites from near the cities to 
nearer the power-producing streams is possible. It 
api^ears reasonable. That it would be to the advantage 
of the workmen seems probable! From the business 
point of view it is more than likely that new conditions 
would be helpful to the manufacturer. Transportation 
of the finished product is usually cheaper than that 
of the raw material. There may be a social uplift 
in the idea. 

That one-seventh of the State should continue in its 
present almost depopulated condition is an unthinkable 
proposition. Mountain-bred men have elements of 
character which have always distinguished them in 



17 

times of national need and trial. To point this state- 
ment it will be sufficient to say that during our Civil 
War the Southern Confederacy was "practically cut 
in two by the wedge of loyal mountaineers from the 
Appalachian chain," "and they startled the nation on 
the scene of our Civil War by sending 180,000 of their 
riflemen into the Union Army."* 

These Appalachian mountaineers were in no wise 
different in loyalty and in efficiency from the other 
mountain men bred and reared between Maine and 
northern Georgia. Until the millennium dawns and 
men cease to learn war, the human product of the 
timberland will continue to be one of the most impor- 
tant assets in our national life, if we furnish the means 
of earning a living in the forests where this stalwart 
character was developed. We cannot obliterate the 
fact that mountain men, unassisted, saved North 
and South Carolina and Georgia during the Revolu- 
tionary War and paved the way for the final surrender 
at Yorktown by their victory at King's Mountain. 
Neither may we forget that it was the woodsmen of 
Teimessee that saved the day for Jackson at New 
Orleans, in the war of 1812. It was the mountaineers 
of New Hampshire that prevented the escape of Bur- 
goyne at Saratoga. It was in response to Ethan 
Allen's emphatic demand that Ticonderoga surrendered 
to the "Green Mountain Boys." Last of all should 
we of Pennsylvania forget that our 1st Rifle Regiment, 
the famous "Bucktails," came, in great part, from the 
lumber camps of the State. 

I make my appeal for the Men of the Mountains 
as a part of our State and national forestry problem. 

* See Kephart's "Our Southern Highlanders," p. 19. 



18 

To New York belongs the great credit of being the 
first State to set apart, by purchase, a large body of 
woodland "as an outing ground for the people." It 
was a long look ahead — the commencement of a policy 
in behalf of health and efficiency that but few people 
yet realize the beneficent consequences of. It is 
wiser to prevent than to cure disease. There are, 
all the time, in Pennsylvania and in every State, 
literally, thousands who are on the road to become 
confirmed invalids and charges upon the bounty of the 
public. It can no longer be questioned that a large 
portion could be restored to health and usefulness if 
removed from the unhealthy conditions in which they 
have lived, and placed in the open air of our Forest 
Reserves. Our splendid department of Public Health 
is doing a great work. Its only defect is, and it is a 
very serious defect, that it does not commence far 
enough back and begin in such cases at the beginning. 
Public charity too often sends such sufferers to some 
seashore or country boarding-place for rest and recrea- 
tion, when better results would be more cheaply ob- 
tained in a wisely directed camp in the woods of the 
State. 

Our Legislature of 1913-1914 wisely enacted that 
space for individual homes upon the Forest Reserves 
might be granted, under proper conditions. This 
privilege subserves two very important purposes: 
first, it conduces to pubUc health; second, it places 
upon the ground men who are interested in the good of 
the State lands and especially in the prevention and 
prompt suppression of forest fires. 

Many realize the benefits they individually receive 
from a sojourn in the woods; though but a small 



19 

proportion of these same persons recognize that the 
statement concerning the tree whose leaves were "for 
the heaUng of the nations" is neither fiction nor figm-e 
of speech. 

Will nature, unassisted, restore forests to the waste 
places of the State? Certainly not, unless forest fii-es 
are absolutely prevented. It by no means follows, 
however, that the naturally restored growth is the best 
timber or, indeed, that it is timber at all in any proper 
sense of the word. There may be, for example, a 
dense growth of fire cherry, the only use of which would 
be as a nurse tree, or as an occupant to hold the soil 
until real timber could be well started under favorable 
conditions. One has but to go into a woods from which 
the original timber has been cut to realize that the new 
growth is more than likely to contain many species 
which have no commercial value, and others that have 
but little value, with but few specimens of our stand- 
ard timber trees. Some carefuUy prepared tables of 
averages of "good, bad, and indifferent" species on 
given acres, which are reported as "well timbered," 
would effectually dispose of the notion that nature can 
be wholly trusted to do the work of reforestation. 

The first essential in forestry is prevention of forest 
fires. In so far as we fail in this, we fail in the whole 
problem. The word prevention is used advisedly. 
Hitherto extinguishing forest fires and suppressing 
forest fires have been the leading ideas in oiu" forest 
fire code. The one idea to get is that forest fii'es 
must be prevented by the presence of a sufficient patrol, 
assigned to the duty of preventing the start of fires; 
second, of promptly extinguishing them, if started, 
and, third, of discovering how the fire was started and 



20 

promptly bringing the offender to punishment. In a 
long life of woods experience, I have seen, in Pennsyl- 
vania, but two forest fires the creation of which could 
be clearly traced to lightning. It is not long since it 
was estimated that on an average of once in thi-ee years 
the "cut over land" of the State was burned. One 
may fairly say that there is already a marked improve- 
ment. 

It is important to bear in mind that almost every 
forest fire is the result of ignorance, carelessness, or 
crime, and that there is some one to punish for it. 
To extinguish a forest fire after it has destroyed the 
growing timber costs about as much as preventing the 
fire by an efficient patrol and saving the timber. 
This is the verdict of experienced lumbermen who have 
tried both plans. 

A carefully selected patrol has the distinct advantage 
of dispensing with the irresponsible, undisciplined mob 
that usually rushes to a forest fii'e, as much with the 
idea of getting what they can out of it, as with the in- 
tention of helping to extinguish it. 

We must still be prepared to accept the fact that if 
forest fires are started, there will come times when they 
will defy the best efforts at prompt suppression. For 
example, in a fire starting in a dry, autumn bed of 
leaves, when sufficient water is not available and, as 
often happens, a high wind is prevailing, trails, fire 
lanes, roads will all be crossed and cinders and flaming 
bark may convey the conflagration from one side of a 
valley to another. Such extreme cases are rare, but 
they do occur. 

Pennsylvania's restorative measures have thus far 
been confined mainly to planting on the abandoned 



21 

fields -ndthin the forest reserve, though some "spot- 
planting" has been tried in existing woods, with greater 
or less success. 

The methods of reforestation must necessarily be 
varied. In some instances clean cutting will be re- 
sorted to. In others, desirable seedhngs will be used 
for "under planting" in forests deemed worthy of 
saving and which will not interfere with the growth of 
the newly planted seedlings. At one place the forests 
will be made up of but one kind of tree, say, for ex- 
ample, white oak — a "pure stand." At another place 
the forest will contain a mixture of desirable trees. 

The one point desii'ed to be impressed here is the 
magnitude of the work of restoring timber to from four 
to six millions of acres and doing it as promptly as 
possible. State work, however necessary, is always 
slow. 

To plant an acre of young white pines 1,000 seedlings 
of say three years' growth would not be an excessive 
number; in fact, 2,000 would be nearer the mark. 
They are started close, m order that in search for sun- 
light, tall, straight trunks may be developed. As they 
grow and crowd each other, the weaker ones are re- 
moved. The process of thinning continues until the 
timber has reached marketable size. From the time 
the young trees are 20 feet high they begin to have a 
value, and by sale of those removed, income (small at 
first) begins to come in. 

Starting then with the statement of 1,000 seedlings 
to the acre, one inmiediately recognizes that to plant 
1,000 acres would require a million seedlings. The 
magnitude of the task becomes at once appalling. 
It is clear that if replanting the "cut-over" lands of the 



22 

State were immediately necessary to save the soil, the 
Commonwealth would be doomed. Fortunately, it 
is not necessary, however desirable it may be. 

So far as the best statistical information can say, 
the available timber of the United States cannot pos- 
sibly last longer than thirty years. It will naturally 
become higher in price as it becomes scarcer. There 
seems to be in sight no new supply to meet the coming 
deficiency in that time. The country can, however, be 
well on the way, first to save the soil, and second, to 
restore the timber, though the need for immediate 
action is urgent. 

The policy adopted should be for such lands as are 
better adapted to the growth of timber than any other 
crop. 

First. Replant the treeless land with seedlings of 
the most desirable species so far as possible. 

Second. Carefully safeguard against fire the most 
promising lands on which there exists a reasonable 
stand of timber, and underplant in it the "shade en- 
during" species as much as possible. 

Third. Protect the remaining soil of the steep, 
rocky, treeless parts by any growth, however worthless, 
if it will only afford a soil cover while living, and aid in 
producing soil when dead. 

The first two propositions require here no further 
statements. The third should be amplified. There 
are thousands of acres, probably, densely covered with 
a low, much-branched, slow-growing tree known as 
scrub oak (Quercus ilicifolia, Wang.). The ground is 
usually poor, and sometimes it is both poor and rocky. 
But little soil appears. Such thickets may persist so 
long that it comes to be supposed nothing better ever 



23 

can be produced there. If, however, fire be kept off 
and the mould allowed to accumulate, at length other 
more valuable species may appear, struggle thi-ough 
the thicket of scrub oak, gradually overtop it, and then 
kill it out by the shade formed. Such illustrations of 
white, red, and scarlet oaks supplanting the scrub oak 
can be seen in Pike County, Pennsylvania. 

The so-called scrub oak then seems to have a distinct 
value, because it is a good producer and retainer of soil, 
and also because it is preparing the ground for trees 
which have a value as timber. It holds in check ruinous 
soil-washing, and allows time for starting forests on 
soil which promises results in reasonable time. 

Then there are other areas which, if fire allows, be- 
come speedily covered with a dense growth of sumac, 
blackberry bushes, and fire cherry, neither of which 
have any value in themselves, but which have quick 
growth and furnish soil cover, thus preventing, or at 
least holding, soil-wash in check. 

Still another method of valuable time-serving policy 
is practicable. There are locations where the soil 
appears good, but for some reason or another trees 
have failed to grow. Such places often take kindly to 
grass and, as in Cameron County, a vigorous crop 
follows the accidental deposit of seed on the surface. 
Sod is, as we know, a good soil retainer. These grassy 
spots also resist the fire. The tops may, and do, burn 
completely, but the roots will speedily cover the surface 
with a new crop of verdure. 

There are also extensive areas almost wholly occupied 
by huckleberry and blueberry bushes. These, too, 
are good soil retainers. 

Lastly, there are rocky slopes upon which no vestige 



24 

of soil remains, and where nothing but lichens are 
found. These spots never can become worse and may 
well be neglected until the more promising locations 
have been cared for — but such apparently hopeless 
situations do have a distinct lesson, if we heed it, for 
they reveal the danger to the Commonwealth of neg- 
lecting to care for the thousands of square miles which, 
with greater or less rapidity, are going into just such 
an unproductive condition. Such an area is a gnawing, 
corroding sore in the heart of the State. It merits 
attention ! 

The lesson of these waste lands is: Plant what you 
can at once, and for the rest aid nature in covering them 
with whatever will grow best, and prevent destructive 
washing away of soil. Bear in mind that the whole 
problem of forest restoration is urgent, though some 
portions of the work are more urgent than others. 
Note, however, that where forest fires are tolerated, 
the best forestry efforts will produce small results. 

Even under the most favorable conditions the State 
will, for many years, miss the income formerly re- 
ceived from its lumber industries, which once aggre- 
gated nearly $30,000,000 annually as the lumber fell 
from the saw. 

In strong contrast with our lack of care is the policy 
of Russia, which is said to still have 900,000,000 acres 
in one timber belt where, though wood is the general 
fuel, it may not be cut without official permission. No 
water protecting forest can be cut, no cattle are allowed 
to graze on lands until the trees are ten feet high, and 
all forests which guard against erosion of water or 
drifting sands are exempt from taxation.* 

* See National Geographic Magazine, Vol. xxvi, pp. 483 and 486. 



25 

The lumber industry in Pennsylvania has so long 
passed its best period and been on the wane that it 
may be said to have ceased as a dominant industry. 
Here and there a considerable operation exists, nearing 
its end, but even of these only a few remain. 

Not only has the extended forest area disappeared, 
but the individual, maximum sized tree has become so 
rare that mention of the diameters of those occasionally 
found half a century ago excites expression of a doubt. 
For example, a chestnut tree having, at "breast- 
height," a circumference of 273^^ feet; or white pines 
six feet in diameter, standing in the virgin forest; 
or the white oak still growing near Kutztown, Berks 
County, Pa. (facing this page), 31 feet in circumference 
at base of trunk, 74 feet high; limbs spread over 104 
feet. 

In connection with the newly started doctrine of con- 
servation, which has taken hold of the nation so firmly, 
this waste land merits consideration. Money, in- 
dustry, and whatever other elements of national 
prosperity entered into lumbering disappeared with 
the timber upon which they depended. Nothing took 
the place of the lumber industry. It was simply 
blotted out. This, of course, was unfortunate, but 
the worst feature was that the soil was practically 
abandoned and allowed to become, in many instances, 
not only hopelessly sterile, but an actual nursery of 
disaster, a source of danger to the productive portions 
of the State. 

We properly condemn use of coal, which is non- 
restorable, when it is made to do the work of water- 
power, which is returned to us again and again for 
use, but what shall we say concerning a policy of soil 



26 

neglect until it ceases to produce anything needed or 
desired by man, and is, at the same time, becoming his 
active enemy? This is the light in which we must re- 
gard every extensive area that, instead of conserving 
rain fall, actually hurries it out of the country and 
carries productive soil with it. 

There are in Pennsylvania several counties that were 
once prosperous, because rich in forests, but which are 
now reduced to an almost bankrupt condition because 
the timber is gone and the land is too poor and cold to 
encourage remunerative agriculture. What the future 
has in store for such regions is not yet apparent. 

The forestry problem is thus seen to be a many-sided 
one. I have no desire to confine myself to such a state- 
ment as would bring undue discredit upon Pennsyl- 
vania, for she is in forestry work a pioneer among the 
States, as she also is a pioneer in conservation of our 
immense mineral wealth. It is simple justice to call 
attention to the restorative forestry agencies already 
started within the State limits. 

Pennsylvania has now in PubUc Forest Reserve 
1,001,227 acres, which she has acquired by purchase. 
It is especially worthy of note that from the date of 
the first purchase an effort has been made to place it 
under proper forestry conditions. In other words, we 
have no forest laws which retard or prohibit practice 
of forestry as a productive science. We have aimed 
at constructive rather than tentative forestry. That 
this poUcy has been successful is proved by the fact 
that land which fifteen years ago was purchased for 
$2.50 an acre has now an estimated stumpage value of 
from $13 to $16 an acre. And it may be added that 



27 

this statement applies to areas embracing thousands 
of acres. 

Amount paid thus far for land $2,281,385.17 

Average price per acre 2.27 

Roads, trails, and fire-breaks, repaired, rebuilt or 

new, about 6,000 miles 

Number of seedlings planted 12,215,750 

Area planted or restocked 6,000 acres 

Total number of seedlings now in nurseries .... 13,400,000 
Number of seedlings available for planting in 

spring of 1915 4,000,000 

Acreage in nurseries 25 acres 

Fire towers and outlooks built 50 

MUes of telephone bought or built for Forest Re- 
serves 130 



These are substantial evidences of progress. They, 
in themselves, are unimportant except as they show 
underlying signs which express a fixed forest policy, 
backed by a considerable portion of pubUc-spirited 
citizens. 

It is, therefore, worth while to say that our Pennsyl- 
vania State Forestry Association has efficient repre- 
sentatives in every county of the Commonwealth, and 
that we have, in addition, the cordial support of the 
State Conservation Association, of the American Fores- 
try Association, of the American Civic Association, and 
of the Women's Clubs of the State and of the lumber- 
men of the State. The Pennsylvania Forestry Associa- 
tion has, since 1868, published, once in two months, a 
modest, illustrated pamphlet, "Forest Leaves," which 
has reflected the activities of the Association and been 
very effective in placing the desires and purposes of the 
Association before the Legislature. The active support 
of the newspapers of the State has been a most helpful 
factor. The fact that thousands of our citizens camp 
annually upon the State Forest Reserves in search of 



28 

health and recreation has furnished a strong support to 
the forestry movement. 

Our forestry reserves contain within them the head- 
waters of many streams, fountains of pure water, from 
which several towns are drawing their supply. 

The net revenue from the forest reserves is to go 
mainly toward forming a State school fund, and it 
promises, in the not distant future, to be an important 
annual contribution. For every acre of forest reserve 
land in any county, a fixed sum of four cents an acre 
goes toward the roads or schools of the county. The 
reserves give emplojrment to a considerable number of 
men as rangers or as laborers. 

Recent legislative enactments have created a new 
class of lands known as Auxiliary Forest Reserves, 
into which the owner may place such lands as have 
suitable growing timber and have the tax reduced to a 
minimum, so long as the trees remain in healthy condi- 
tion. When the timber is cut, the owner pays enough 
to compensate for the reduced tax rate while the timber 
was growing. It is worthy of note that though Penn- 
sylvania was not the first State to pass these laws, the 
idea originated there and the first active measures to 
secure such legislation began there. These laws re- 
move a tax burden which often was practical con- 
fiscation. They place the premium on growing timber 
and the penalty on cutting it! 

When purchase of land for the State began, it was 
impossible to secure trained men to care for it. There 
was, at that time, nothing left for us to do but to train 
our own men. Out of necessity there grew up out 
of most humble beginnings what has developed into 
the State Forest Academy at Mont Alto. The State 




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29 

educates its foresters there, free of all cost. There 
are now 60 out of 74 graduates of the school on duty in 
the forest reserves. A fine, trained, loyal body of 
young men who are, year by year, proving the wisdom 
of the policy which led them to, and prepared them for, 
the State service. Under these foresters there are 
87 rangers, who, when not engaged in other duties, 
are constantly patroling thek reserves. There is 
also a high-grade forestry department in the State 
College. 

Since 1883 eight successive Governors have lent 
their support to our forestry movement. Much of 
the ground that the cause has gained has been due to 
their friendly interest. 

Our newly inaugurated Governor Brumbaugh has 
long been a positive advocate of progressive State 
forestry. We can not doubt that during his administra- 
tion his sympathy will be with the work, and that so 
far as the many, varied interests of the State allow, 
he will guide and forward this work, "thus far so nobly 
advanced." 

The Commissioner of Forestry is the head of a De- 
partment which is coordinate in official rank with the 
Department of Agriculture, or the Department of 
Education. This makes the head of the forestry work 
vu'tually a member of the Governor's cabinet, and per- 
mits full, direct exchange of views without intervening 
parties. It is to this, no doubt, that the State has been 
able to take and maintain a leading position in the 
forestry movement of the country. 

The work thus far accomplished, important though 
it may be, is but a fragment of what remains to be done 



30 

before the State can again lay claim to the name (Penn 
Sylvania) which was rightfully bestowed upon it. 

It has cost us thirty-eight years of um-emitting 
pioneer effort. A solid foundation has been laid upon 
which to build a modern, progressive forestry system. 

It has been thought by others than the writer that 
this presentation of facts might be of service to the 
friends of forestry in other States than Pennsylvania, 
and that they might be encouraged by our ultimate 
victory after so many years devoted to creating public 
sentiment favorable to the movement. We must 
understand that the land is ours to use, to enjoy, to 
transmit; but that it is not ours to desolate, that we 
are bound to leave it in as good condition for those 
who follow us as we found it for ourselves. 



I 



